I just came back from Ayu's first concert in Asia this year!!!!!!!
It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!
I'm still spazzing over the awesomeness.
The only downside to the concert was that HK people don't understand the concert traditions, at least most of them don't. I mean, come on, why do so many of them SIT through most of the concert? You're supposed to stand yo! Of course, when some people start doing the right things, others follow. The staple moves in Fly High (in the chorus) and Boys & Girls, Evolution etc, are soon followed. It's great fun.
I sat directly opposite the stage on the balcony area (sadly the cheapest tickets), but the view was really good and the stadium was much smaller than expected, so technically I was sitting pretty close and I was getting a really good view of the stage.
There was a merchandise stall inside the Asia expo, but they didn't sell a lot of the merchandise that was available at the Japanese stops, such as the T-shirt, the hoodies, the glowing sticks and fans (they should have included those.) They had towels, keychains, and stickers.
Anyway, enough with my talking now, I'll go onto the actual review. Now, I've already described most of the performances in my previous report of the 6/29 AT2008 in Yoyogi which can be found
here. However, there are some changes (of course) in this concert.
Firstly, Ayu doesn't have a fringe (or bangs) now as she did during the Japan leg of her tour. It looks even cooler and wayyy better IMO.
Secondly, as of the currently known setlist,
is this LOVE? is sung after
Talkin' 2 Myself. But in the HK concert, is this LOVE? was not sung, and instead,
A Song for XX was sung.
That really surprised me!!! I was so happy that I was pretty much bobbing about screaming and hyperventilating. XDD ASFXX is one of my favourite songs.
It's passionate and well-sung. Ayu's vocals in this concert were very very good~
My sster and I tried to stand up at T2M and continued to do so, until we (and everyone else nearby) were asked to sit down by a whole PACK of guards. It was just us, you know, just the people who were directly opposite the stage on the balcony. Just us!! Those on the two sides of the balcony stood up a lot of the time too! And we had to sit down cos' everyone else was and we'd "block" them if we did! How pissed I still am. XDD I was pretty miffed about that for the whole concert. Nobody stood back up until before the MC where the 'A' symbol comes out and we all clap.
So that means I watched
evolution sitting down. I feel kinda ripped off... like a really important component of an Ayu concert has been taken away from me. Doing the "Wow yeah~" fist pumping sitting down is very different from doing it standing up. The atmosphere for most of the concert was dampened because of the guards. >( Well, we make the most of it.
(don't) Leave me alone's performance was a little altered as well. The video was the same, where Ayu is chased by two women who later catch her and tie her onto a wheel. Ayu comes onto stage tied on the wheel, but she doesn't sing while she rotates 360 degrees.
She rotates in between the 1st chorus and the 2nd verse. They extend it for her to rotate a few times, and then she is released from the wheel and starts to walk around singing.
my name's WOMEN is really cool to watch live. XDD Nuff' said~ see long report of yoyogi's concert for details. XDD
Ayu's wig in
Marionette looked a little better than during her yoyogi perf. XDD It looked like it was going to fall off during that performance, but in this one, it looked a bit better and she looked more like in the PV (even though it was still clear that it was a wig.) Ahh, it is soooo pretty when the carousel came up, seriously. I just have to emphasise that. XD
I also have to say again how seriously pretty Ayu is in
HANABI. *___*
Mirrorcle World is a performance better watched when you're sitting farther back, because you'd find it hard to see Ayu otherwise.
She stands on top of the ship and her figure etc is really unclear and you'd have to look at the screen (which defeats the purpose of seeing her live.) Mirrorcle World has a really strong rhythm, and ahh, I felt the whole stadium rumbling along with it! What a great feeling~
--
During the short break before the MC, the audience was truly alive! We were yelling "Ayu! (clap x3)" over and over again, and then we were all stamping our feet on the floor in unison, making the entire stadium SHAKE like it was an earthquake!!!!! That was something that didn't happen in Japan.
It was exciting and so much fun. I love the feeling of the audience all being together like that.
MC + ~encore~
The language barrier sure is a big barrier. The MC was much shorter than it was in Japan and Yocchan doesn't show off his singing skills with NEVER EVER.
Ayu and Yocchan joke around a little and Ayu speaks in English to her fans, and then Ayu starts to perform
Dearest and
Voyage~
Her vocals were reeeally good in Dearest. When she sang softly in the verses, she sounded great!! Voyage however still gives me the feeling that she is holding the mic too close to her mouth.
It sounds better during the verse than the chorus.
And then Zin came out to teach us the
MY ALL dance lesson. This one was exciting!!!
Zin taught us in mandarin and it was really funny and cute. XDDD Because his pronounciation was understandable but a little weird and we all loved that.
Ayu argued with Zin about whether or not "Hello everyone!" in Chinese was "da jia hao" (Zin) or "dai gah ho" (Ayu). Zin pointed out that Ayu's "dai gah ho" was cantonese and that he was speaking mandarin. XDD They discussed that for a bit and it was entertaining to watch. XDD Ayu asked us, "Which one is it?" and since we all are cantonese speakers, we said it was "dai ga ho". And Ayu was like, "Ha! See?" XDD
Independent sure was fun!! I regret not learning the dance properly before I went, but I remembered bits of the dance in my memory and was able to catch on quickly. (I can do it by heart now!)
Boys & Girls
To ALL of you who'd EVER said that Ayu should take B&G out of her setlist as a staple song, think again!! This was by FAR the most fun performance of the night, seriously. Evolution would have been just as good if only I had been standing up, but I hadn't. Boys & Girls just had so much audience involvement! I was pointing both my hands at Ayu when I was singing the audience part, and then I was pumping my fist in the air 4 times-- the cue for the chorus to begin, and then we were all yelling "Ai! Ai! Ai!" while Ayu was doing the same and pumping our fists in UNISON. It was amazing!! Seriously, who can make the audience all UNITE? Ayu~!! <3 <3 <3 I want to dance to this song again!
MY ALL
It's always a little sad whenever the last song comes on in a concert, and I know it's going to end soon. Especially right after Boys & Girls... I wanted Ayu to sing Evolution again! Because I had been sitting down when she was singing it. =w= Another bad thing about sticking Evolution between SURREAL is that we miss out the preparation part in the beginning where Ayu tells us to clap our hands in the air... we don't really know what we're supposed to do until the "wow~yeah!" part comes on. XDDD It's still good of course.
Anyway, back on topic, MY ALL was a good performance overall. Ayu wasn't very emotional in this concert. There was no crying involved at all. Not that I mind since Ayu was really cool!
Sucks to those who left after MY ALL finished.
Ayu still had the last part!! When she told us to be quiet, my sister and I had negotiated a plan and we counted to three, then yelled "ARIGATOU!!" to Ayu. We were the first people to disrupt the silence. XDDD Oops... and then a few others went ahead to yell so Ayu could hear as well. XD
Just like in the yoyogi performance, it got annoying and soon, someone was like "AYUUUUU!" and then someone else said "SHUT UP!" in cantonese which was "sul seng la..." in a really annoyed tone. It was really funny. XDDD It seems that things like this happen no matter where an Ayu concert is held!